Reason
by pika318
Summary: After the incident with Lucifer in Vol 1, Emi wants to know the reason why Maou still keeps the fallen angel around. Maou explains.


**Moko-chan**: dun dun dun...and yet another HataMaou fanfic. Yes, Lucifer related again. This time drawing inspiration from vol 0, some nice art I found on pixiv and my awesome imagination. This takes place sometime between vol 1 and 2.

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><p><strong>One shot<strong>: Reason

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><p>"Why do I keep meeting you here, of all places, Emi?" Maou sighed as he leaned against the handlebars of his faithful steed, Dullahan. He was currently at the pedestrian crossing near his home, the run - down wreck of an apartment known as Villa Rosa.<p>

He would love to cross the road and be on his way back home but he was currently being glared at by his arch-nemesis, Yusa Emi.

"You don't keep meeting me here, this is only the fourth..." Emi started saying angrily.

"Fifth."

"Whatever, fifth time I met you here."

"Five times is aplenty in my book. So what do you want now?"

"I want to ask why...why exactly why did you keep that traitor with you?" Emi crossed her arms over her chest and asked while glaring daggers at Maou.

"Traitor?" Maou stared at her blankly for a while and then casually continued "Oh…you mean Urushihara."

"Urushi…Urushihara…oh right." Emi seemed to stumble over the long name. "Geh. You know I'm talking about Lucifer. What kind of weird name is that? It's as bad as your 'Sadao'."

"Ashiya and I thought of it." Maou said as his face turned sour due to Emi insulting his alias.

"Improve your naming sense would you?"

"You didn't come here just to belittle my naming sense, did you? If so, I'm going home." Maou prepared to paddle off but Emi blocked his way.

"I was asking why you're keeping Lucifer with you?" Emi asked again, a bit louder than before.

"Why not?"

"He tried to kill you and Alsiel without so much as batting an eyelid. Aren't you concerned that he may try to do it again?"

"I thought you would be happy if I died." Maou raised an eyebrow.

"Of course I would, but I'll be pissed if you died pathetically by being done in by your own subordinate."

"Ah. Thanks for your concern then."

"Stop trying to change the topic!" Emi was steaming from the ears now.

Maou sighed. If he didn't answer her at all, she was just going to keep pestering him and he would never be able to get home on time. He turned to her and started to speak,

"Ah…if I had to think of a reason why…" Maou thought hard, thinking of a good answer to the Hero's question. It wasn't long before he started to get lost in his own thoughts.

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><p>The first time Satan met Lucifer was almost 300 years ago. He was still a small little goblin just shy of being two decades old. He had a few followers then and currently only one of them, a bird like demon by the name of Kameo, decided to follow him on his travels.<p>

Kameo had warned Satan that Lucifer was a frightening demon, the strongest in the Demon World, a strange demon with a human like appearance and feathered wings. No one who faced him and have been left alive. The only thing that they can be sure of is that he was always alone.

"He is strong in both magic and physical combat. Satan, he is far too dangerous!" Kameo warned the small demon that he had chosen to follow. "What have I told you about avoiding opponents who are much too strong for you?!"

Satan rubbed his sore ears in response to Kameo's loud lecture and replied "I know, I know. If we avoid strong opponents, then we'll have a larger chance of surviving."

"Exactly." Kameo concluded, crossing his arms with a stern expression on his face.

"But I would want such a strong demon like him to follow me when I become king! Think about it, if he joins us, then we'll be so much stronger and won't have to keep running away all the time!" Satan stubbornly argued. He ignored Kameo's warnings and went to find this powerful demon.

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><p>"What do you want, brat?"<p>

Satan could not resist flinching when the other demon loomed over him.

The young demon had tracked the so called legendary demon down and promptly woke him up from his nap. The other party was, obviously, furious.

"Do you want me to kill you?" The demon growled.

Despite being frightened initially, Satan stood his ground.

"I heard about you, Lucifer! I want you to join my army!" Satan declared loudly. He could hear Kameo groaning behind him.

Lucifer stared at Satan, his amethyst eyes widened in surprise and then he started laughing.

"Are you joking? A little worm like you has an army?!"

"Satan - sama does have an army!" Kameo protested but quickly fell silent when Lucifer glared at him.

"You're called Satan? Sheesh...how many idiot demons name their offspring 'Satan' anyway?"

"Quite a lot actually. And I will not allow you to disgrace the honor of my parents even though they aren't around anymore."

"You have quite a big mouth for a little pipsqueak . Now buzz off. I'm not interested." Lucifer waved his hand like he was shooing an insect away.

"I'm going to be the next demon king! You won't regret joining me!" This time Satan had moved closer to Lucifer.

"Are you nuts? Do you know how many thousands of other demons want to be king? What do you have that can beat other demons to the throne?"

"Intelligence and knowledge. I'm not like the other barbaric demons." Satan crossed his arms proudly when he said that.

"Intelligence and knowledge?" Lucifer laughed again. "Now where did you pick up something like that?"

"Well...from someone. Anyway, if you join me,you won't be bored! Aren't you bored being alone like this?"

Lucifer seemed to be pondering what Satan said very carefully.

"Fine. I'll join you…" he said suddenly with a sly smile.

Kameo noticed the smile and was about to say something but Satan quickly said very cheerfully,

"Great!"

"On one condition. You must complete the task that I give you. If you do, I'll follow you. If not…"

"If not…" Satan gulped.

"I'll think of something. Depends on whether you make it out alive. Now, what you have to do is…"

Lucifer told the little demon his mission and ordered him, much to Kameo's protest, to do it alone.

Fortunately for Satan, he managed to complete the task alive (though he got a bit of help from Lucifer) and the fallen angel started to follow him.

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><p>"Well, for starters,I pretty much forced him into my army." Maou scratched his head sheepishly.<p>

"Uh - huh." Emi muttered, her arms still crossed.

"Also..."

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><p>Satan was thrown onto the dirt ground hard, enough to knock his breath out.<p>

"And with that, you'll be dead another time." Lucifer dramatically clapped his hands, getting the dust off them.

"Owwww...I thought I had it for sure." Satan muttered, rubbing his head while he got back to a standing position.

"Oi, Kameo."

Kameo who was just observing from the side seemed to jump when Lucifer called out to him.

"What is it, Lucifer?"

Lucifer frowned as the bird demon failed to address him with honorifics…again despite the fact that he calls a small demon only a few decades old his lord. But as Lucifer was a bit tired of reminding Kameo multiple times in a day, he decided that he'll let it slide this time.

"Did you teach Satan how to fight?"

"Yes I did. But he has a few skills of his own before I stepped in."

"I do know how to fight... a little. The older goblins in my tribe taught me how to." Satan replied.

"Besides, if any danger should befall Satan-sama, you and I should be able to defend him." Kameo said proudly.

Lucifer rolled his eyes.

"Don't be ridiculous." He jabbed a finger at Satan's chest. "You want to be king right?"

"'Course!"

"Then you jolly well learn how to fight properly. Punching and kicking and those pathetic little fireworks do not equate to fighting properly."

A blush rose to Satan's face when he thought how stupid and amateurish his fighting must be.

"Should any of your subordinates fall, at least you can defend yourself. Kameo, don't give me that face. If you're going to defend this brat with your life, then there is a possibility that you will lose your life as well." Lucifer was talking to Satan only when he realised that Kameo looked like he was going to protest again.

"Uh...ok? I get it?"

"Good. I'll teach you how to fight properly and use more advanced magic." Then Lucifer grinned. "You better be prepared because I don't go easy on anyone."

And soon after, Lucifer wiped the floor with the little demon again.

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><p>"He helped me and Ashiya with some things."<p>

"Useless things." Emi immediately added.

"Oi. Don't just assume that's how it is, would you?" Maou said, smiling a forced smile.

"Asking him to call my workplace using the Skyphone isn't useless?" Emi asked with a raised eyebrow.

"That was for fun, okay…I mean, back in the Demon World, he really taught Ashiya and I many things."

"Like?" Emi probed.

"Like…"

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><p>The little demon was no longer a small goblin. Decades passes and he grew bigger, stronger and faster. He also grew wiser and very quickly, more and more demons followed his leadership.<p>

Some tribes, of course, did not yield to him that readily and some show of force was required before they are convinced that they are following the right demon. One of the tribes belonged to Alsiel, a group of armored demons with high levels of defense and were highly skilled in magic. Alsiel, formerly the leader of his tribe decided to pledge his loyalty to Satan after being defeated by him.

And so this incident happened a day after he joined Satan's army.

"Oh, a letter from Kameo." Satan reached out a claw and plucked a roll of parchment from a crow's claw. The crow flew in a circle around the large demon's head before flying off again.

Lucifer briefly glanced through the letter and made no comment.

"You can read that?"

""Eh?""

Both Satan and Lucifer made a surprised noise when Alsiel asked that question.

"The words on that parchment. You can read that?" Alsiel reiterated his question.

"Yeah…We can…" Satan said slowly then he seemed to have realised something. "Oh right, I forgot that most of us cannot read…or write."

"It's not as if demons have much of a writing system anyway." Lucifer chuckled.

"Then what language do you use?" Alsiel asked, confused and bewildered.

"Unfortunately…since demons don't have a fixed writing system, we're using the humans' writing system. I think it was their common trading language or something. I was pretty surprised that Kameo knew it too when I first met him." Satan said.

But if one knew that Kameo was the master of languages, it may not be that surprising after all.

"Where...did you learn all that?" Alsiel asked. From his tone, it was clear he was envious about their skill.

"Eh…someone taught me a long time ago…" Satan muttered, looking in another direction. "Hey, Lucifer, how about you?"

Satan quickly deflected the arrow to the fallen angel.

"If you live as long as me…you pick up stuff like this sooner or later." Lucifer gave a careless answer. He walked up to Alsiel and said with a smug look.

"You really can't read or write?"

"Not at all." Alsiel replied, giving an annoyed look at Lucifer's high and mighty attitude.

"Do you want me to teach you?"

"What?" Now he looked shocked.

"You can't expect the future Demon King to do it. He has other duties to fulfil. Besides, I'm free."

Alsiel's eyes narrowed. He was thinking quite hard about it before saying:

"I'll be in your debt."

"Then you better prepare to study hard, because I'm a strict one." Lucifer said with a smirk.

"Yeah, Alsiel, you should be prepared, I know all about how merciless he can be sometimes." Satan said, a wry smile on his face.

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><p>"Well…and after I became King…Lucifer actually wanted to leave but I didn't let him." Maou continued talking.<p>

Emi was seriously regretting asking the question in the first place, she wasn't prepared for such a long story. But she had to admit, somewhere deep inside, she was curious.

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><p>Even the Demon Minister Kameo flinched when Lucifer stormed into the Demon King's study and started shouting at him.<p>

"What the hell were you thinking? Demon King?!" Lucifer had strode across the room, towards Satan, now the Demon King, grabbed his mantle and yanked down hard.

Satan tilted forward as the smaller demon pulled his mantle. He smiled in an embarrassed manner.

"I guess I did something I shouldn't have?" Satan asked in a sheepish manner.

"You guess? YOU GUESS?! First you make me one of the Demon Generals without consulting me first and then you announce that I'm an angel?!" Lucifer was practically shouting in Satan's ear now.

"I said 'fallen angel'…" Satan said in a small voice. "But I wasn't wrong was I?"

"How the hell do you know I was an angel?!"

"I met an angel before…before you that is. And uh…you gave me the same feeling that she did."

Lucifer released Satan's mantle. Satan winced because he could tell that the fallen angel was extremely angry at the moment.

"Screw this. I'm leaving." Lucifer turned on his heel and prepared the walk out of the study on to find that Alsiel was blocking the way.

Lucifer stopped, surprised to see Alsiel. Then Alsiel spoke,

"I heard everything. I was the one who nominated you as a Demon General. Not Demon King-sama."

"Wha…"

"Yeah, I wasn't the one! So what if you were an angel? You're a demon now right?" Satan exclaimed. Then he looked at Ashiya,

"You don't mind right?"

"Why should I? Only the narrow minded would care about this. I respect you for your ability and that alone. I do not care if you were an angel before."

Lucifer slapped his palm against his own forehead and groaned.

"Just because you two don't mind doesn't mean the other demons won't. Are you both morons or something? Angels and demons are natural enemies! How do you expect me to lead an army?! They'll sooner kill me first!"

"Then make them respect you." Alsiel said calmly.

"You make it sound so simple."

"I cannot think of any other way."

"If you ask me…" The other three demons turned towards Kameo who has started speaking. Kameo cleared his throat and continued talking.

"Making you a demon general shows that you can be trusted. I do not think that the other demons would lay a hand on you."

"Yeah. Besides, if any of them try to attack you, I'm pretty sure you can take care of yourself."

Lucifer looked at the Demon King, Kameo and Alsiel with some uncertainty. Then he sighed and bowed his head weakly.

"Fine. I'll stay. But…" Lucifer stared at Satan straight in the eye. "If by any chance that I get betrayed, I'm out."

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><p>"So he still stayed in the end, reluctantly at first but he was alright with it afterwards."<p>

Emi had started yawning.

"Then I sent him to Western Isle …where you soon encountered him." Maou said.

Now Emi narrowed her eyes. She remembered the hatred she had for Lucifer for destroying her home.

"Actually, Emi, I think I should really thank you for not killing Lucifer."

"Huh?!" Emi exclaimed very loudly, drawing a few stares from passerbys. She quickly lowered her voice. "It's not as if I did it on purpose!" She hissed.

"I know, I know. But I still want to thank you…"

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><p>"Demon King-sama." The one who was speaking was one of the Demon Generals, Maracoda.<p>

The Demon King looked up from his map and looked at the skeletal demon.

"What news do you bear?"

"Nothing but the worst. The Western General Lucifer has been felled by the hands of the hero. I am afraid that my troops are unable to retrieve him." Maracoda spoke with his head bowed as though expressing his regret.

The Demon King pressed his claws against the bridge of his nose and then said sadly.

"That is truly regretful. I am glad that you managed to retreat, Maracoda." The Demon King gave a sorrowful smile.

"I am glad to escape with my life as well."

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><p>"Man, you wouldn't believe how devastated I was." Maou laughed, thinking of how pathetic he must have looked in the past.<p>

Emi had a strange look on a face.

"You know during that earthquake at Shibuya? And after you told me someone warned you in advance?"

"Um...yeah. What about it?" Emi asked.

"I figured that it might have been Lucifer behind the whole thing. Maracoda and Adramelech would not do things like warning or psyching the enemy. But he was the only one who was reported to me as dead, so I wasn't sure whether it was really him or not until he appeared in front of us." Maou explained.

Now Emi was drumming her fingers against her arm impatiently.

_Why is Maou telling me all this? He's like an old man reminiscing about a past his grandchildren don't want to listen to!_

"You know...uh...Maou...I think I'll go back now…" Emi started saying while simultaneously trying to turn the other direction.

"So I was actually really happy to see him...huh? Did I get carried away? And you're going already? Hey, you were the one who asked in the first place." Maou said with a sour look.

"Yes and I'm really sorry for it!" With that, Emi quickly turned and walked briskly to the station.

"What's with her…" Maou mumbled to himself and then he made his way back home.

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><p>"Welcome back, Demon King-sama." Maou was immediately greeted by Ashiya when he entered the doorway of apartment 201.<p>

"Yeah I'm back." Maou replied and then he looked at the other resident of the household, Urushihara and repeated in a louder voice. "I'M BACK!"

Urushihara turned from his computer and scowled. "I heard you! No need to shout!"

"Where's my 'welcome back?'"

"Ashiya said it already." Urushihara grumbled.

"It's only customary in Japan that you…" Maou started lecturing.

"Can you be even more naggy?! Welcome back! There! Happy?" Urushihara snapped.

"Much better." Maou looked to Ashiya who was giving a look which seemed to say, 'How did our roles ever get switched to such a large extent?'

Maou shrugged, as if to say, "I know right."

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><p><strong>Moko-chan<strong> : Ok that's all, yeah!

**pika318**: Please review if you like it ^_^


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